Companions since Childhood
by Miss Avund
Summary: "What's your name?""Sirius. And you?""Dorcas, but if you want to, you can call me Cassy. Since we're friends now." She was his first friend who his father hadn't picked out for him.
1. Chapter 1

******A/N: Everyone who read fanfiction should know about the term "fanfiction" which means that the writer (I) don't own anything.**

******This story will have kind-of-a-plot, with other words will it be two introducing chapters and then a couple of drabbles and an epilog (or something like that). It may sound weird, but you'll see, and maybe understand, later. I started writ a story, but coulden't come up with a good plot. Then it become drabbles and now it is a mess... **

******I hope you'll enjoy it anyway!**

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The clouds started to pile up in the sky, and it would probably start to rain soon. It was in the middle of April but the air was still cold between London's buildings.

A girl swayed in the park while her mother sat on a bench nearby and read a book. The girl couldn't be more than six years old. She had her dark brown hair in two ponytails and her blue eyes sparkled when she swooshed away on the swing. She had always wanted to fly a broom but since she and her parents lived in the city the risks of anyone seeing them way to big. To swing was the closest she could come to flying and it had become her favorite play to pretend she was flying on a racing-broom.

"Dorcas, come here." Her mum beckoned to her. She slowed down and put her feet on the ground so that there were long trails behind her and dust whirled up from the gravel. Her mum had put the book in her bag.

"Come on, let's go home." She looked over to the other side of the park with worry in her eyes but turned to Dorcas again.

"But mum, I'm not done playing!"

"Dorcas stop…" she started but a sharp voice interrupted.

"Nanette Fincher." Two women had walked up to them. Behind the ladies stood also five children. They all wore typical wizarding clothes unlike themselves.

Nanette and her husband Ian Meadowes only wore robes when they socialized with other wizards, were in Diagon Alley or similar. After all, they lived in a muggle neighborhood and it was only unnecessary to attract attention.

The children were three girls, all of them was older then Dorcas, and two boys in her age. The two eldest girls both had dark wavy hair. They were a lot alike but one of them was a bit taller and had a malicious smile on her lips. The youngest girl had blond hair and pulled on one of the ladies skirts. She whined that she was freezing but the woman just waved away her hand.

The boys had black hair with gray, silver eyes. On the outside they very similar but Dorcas noticed significant differences. One of them was more self-confidence and outspoken because he stared at her with curiosity with a mischievous smile. The other boy mostly looked down at the ground.

"Druella Black. Walburga Black." Nanette greeted, just as frosty, back. "You know I'm married now. My name is Meadowes."

Dorcas had never heard her mum this cold or tense before. It scared her. Her mum was always so calm and did very seldom get angry. "We can fix this, nothing to worry about" she always said, even when Dorcas had accidently broken aunt's precious bowl.

Now she stood straight behind Dorcas, with her hands lying protectively on her daughters shoulders.

"I can see your kid doesn't listen to what you're saying" smirked Lucretia, like she was talking about a dog and ignored the last comment. She watched Dorcas with sharp eyes.

"That's how it goes when you marry a mudblood. Halfblood without discipline! And you who had acceptable blood otherwise, Fincher" Walburga continued.

"As I told you, my name is Meadowes and it is not a mudblood or halfblood you're talking about. They are my husband and daughter."

"If that's how you want it… come on children. I don't want you to associate with dirty halfblood-kids. Too bad they have plagued the air. Maybe you could have played outside otherwise." The Black ladies continued their walk through the park. The girls and a boy followed. The shorter of the dark haired girls rolled her eyes but there were not any other protests.

Only the self confident boy remained, but his smile was gone and instead did he look at Dorcas and her mum like he was in deep thoughts.

After some time Walburga hissed "Sirius, we're going now!"

He jumped at the voice as if he had wakened up from a dream. After he had thrown Dorcas a last glance he ran after the other. When he was also out of sight Nanette let out her breath.

"Shall we go home now, Dorcas?" Suddenly she sounded very tired.

Dorcas only nodded.

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**A/N: The caracter "Dorcas Meadowes" is canon for you who don't know it. She's mentioned one time, in the pictur from the fifth book Harry gets from Mad-Eye Moody. She stands next to Sirius (and yes, that's why I ship them).**

**Next chapter will be more about Sirius and they actually talk, so please read that too even if you thought this was boring. I'll will have it up as soon I can (it depends on my Beta).**

**Tell me what you think, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter (which I don't know when I will publish****…).**

**Thanx for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Mother, can I go out?" Sirius stood at the window and looked at the park outside, the sun shining and the sky clear and blue. A perfect day to spend outdoors. He had been forced home to his uncle by his witch of a mother (witch in more than one way). It wasn't that there was anything wrong with uncle Alphard, the opposite actually, he was one of the few Sirius liked. But that did not mean he wanted to sit trapped in his uncle's house instead of playing outside.

"So you can bring in dirt and mud on Alphards carpets? Do not think so!" Walburga Black didn't even look up from the book she was reading. Probably _Muggles, closer related to trolls than wizards? _was way too interesting.

"But mother, I'm just going to the park…" As most children his age (7 years) he did not want to sit indoors and listen to adults talking. Today only he and his mother where visiting because his cousins were all back at Hogwarts after the springbreak and Regulus was sick and had to stay home.

"Don't you hear what I'm saying? NO!" she hissed. Mrs Black despised her son when he disturbed her like this all the time. Couldn't he just sit in some corner and be quiet?

Alphard on the other side pitied the boy. He had always had a soft spot for him. There was something special about Sirius, as he had more life in the eyes than the other children in the Black family. But with a mother like that he would be just as dead as the rest of the bunch in a couple of decades.

"Oh, Walburga. Of course he can go to the park, it's only over the street. Fresh air would do him good and I will clean those rugs anyway." Sirius gave him a big smile as thanks and he received a wink back. In less than a minute Sirius flown through the front door.

Sirius ran to the swing set. That was where he had seen the girl and her mother. She, the girl, had looked kind, very different from all the other children he knew. His father and mother had left him with other families for a few hours when he was younger to "socialize with other youths". (How much could a three years old toddler socialize anyway?) That was before Regulus had been big enough to play together with him. But none of those kids had rosy cheeks or grazes on their knees like her.

The few children he had played with all had nice and well known family names and pure blood. They sat with their backs straight and wore spotless clothes. None of them were very good as playmates.

When he had come close enough he could see she was sitting on her swing with her back to him. She hadn't seen him but it was as if she had waited for him to come back to see her.

"Hello!" He called out to her and she turned around to see who it was. Then she slowed down and hopped off her swing. She didn't walk towards him however, as he first thought she would, but instead walked in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait up. Where are you going?" He hadn't had any real friends, but he was pretty sure that she did it wrong. You don't walk away from the person you wanted to be friends with.

"I don't want to talk with you. You're stupid." She said before she kept walking.

"What, I haven't done anything" Sirius ran to catch up with her. Had he done something wrong already? Wouldn't he remember that?

"Leave me alone. You called me and my dad nasty things, and mum has told me to stay away from mean people." The girl stopped and stared at him with anger in her eyes. Then he started to understand. She had meant what his mother and aunt had said and thought he was of the same opinion.

"It wasn't I who said so. I don't think that" he ensured and smiled so that she would know he wanted them to be friends. The girl hesitated as her mum had told her to stay away from the kids of the Black family, but he didn't seem to be too bad.

"Really? You're sure?" She didn't look so angry anymore.

"Yeah." He smiled so you could see all his teeth, which was what his Uncle Alphard called the charm smile because he was sure no one would be able to resist it when Sirius got older.

She thought on it some more and said then "In that case I can probably play with you".

She went back to the swings and Sirius followed. They sat beside each other on each swing and dangled their legs. "So, uhm, what's your name?"

"Sirius. It's some weird name that runs in the family. And you?"

"Dorcas, but if you want to, you can call me Cassy. Since we're friends now." Sirius smiled when she said that. She was his first friend who his father hadn't picked out for him.

"Do you live here, Cassy?"

"Yeah, just over the street there, in a brick house." She pointed to one of the sides of the park. "Do you live here too?"

"No, but my uncle does. We're visiting him."

"You mean all you who came here before? Who were the others?" She was curious, even if she didn't like them.

"Mother and my Aunt, as you know. Then it was my brother and three cousins." Sirius did not actually want to talk about his relatives, but if they would be friends he guessed he had to anyway, for Cassy.

"Who's who? I mean what are their names?"

"Bellatrix's my oldest cousin, she's in her fifth year at Hogwarts." He shivered when he thought about her. Almost no one liked his eldest cousin, she was awe-inspiring and everyone was frightened by her.

"Is she?" Dorcas said with admire in her voice. "Is she nice?"

"No. Well, sometimes but not to me." Dorcas' smile disappeared so Sirius added quickly, "But that's okay, I don't like her either. Andy, who's in the fourth year, is much more kind. Then there's Narcissa. I guess she's okay, but she likes my little brother, Regulus, more than me."

"Really? Well, I like you more."

They both became silent.

His whole life Sirius had come in second, as everyone preferred Regulus. It was okay though. Regulus was the perfect child so it was only fair, right? But it felt good to know someone who liked him, to come in first place.

"Do you have any siblings?" Sirius asked after a while.

"No, I'm an only child and have only little cousins so I'm kind of oldest in the whole family. But I have a dog."

"You have?" said Sirius and smiled. He liked dogs, they were loyal and faithful, but no way would his mother let him have one.

"Yeah, he is almost ten years old, and named Tripped. Mum's saying he had big paws when he was puppy so he always tripped." They laughed together.

"Now he is pretty old so he like to rest a lot. He lies in doorways so now it's we who trip over him."

"Is it how you got that?" Sirius asked when he got his breath back and pointed to her knee where she had a plaster.

"No, I got that because I jumped off the swing. I was too high up and landed wrong. I had scratches on my hands too before." She showed her hands to him but they were already healed.

Sirius looked at her with a wrinkled forehead and Dorcas giggled. He looked cute when he did that.

"What?"she asked.

"Nothing. I just wished we were friends when you fell. I could have helped you."

"Don't be silly. It wasn't even serious, only some scrapes." She rolled her eyes, but at least she had someone to care about her. "What would you have done then, if you had been here? Would you have made the ground softer or something?"

He thought about it and said then "I could have caught you."

"You could never carry my weight. I would fall on you and then you would get hurt too."

"No, I promise. If you jump I'll catch you."

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**A big thank you to my Betareader: _DarkGarnetRose_**

**Tell me what you think, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter.**

**Thanx for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

The autumn was just around the corner and all the trees leaves had started to change color. In the Meadowes' family backyard stood a big oak tree, still with some green leaves on it.

Dorcas and Sirius lay on their backs on the lawn, with their arms and legs stretched out and only their fingertips touching. Tripped lying loyal on Dorcas' side. It was getting late and the stars were beginning to show up on the bare sky above them.

Sirius should have been at his uncle's house but he had sneaked out after the dinner. He wanted rather be with Dorcas than his family, and in almost two hours they had just talked about everything that came up in their minds.

"How do you think it is to be grown up? You know, like, to attend Hogwarts and such." As the oldest child in a wizarding family Dorcas did not know much about everything that was going on at Hogwarts. She had only her parents as a reference, and they went to school way too long ago to know anything important.

"Don't know. We get busy or something. Andy has a lot to do, even when she's home." Unlike Dorcas Sirius was tired of the topic. His cousins Bella, Andy and Cissy always came home with fantastic stories. He was sick of being an audience and could barely wait 'till he could have his own adventures.

"Really? Like what?" Dorcas had only meet Andromeda a few times but liked and looked up to her. She was Sirius favorite cousin, and if he loved Andy so much she had to be admirable.

"She reads a lot, practices spells, writes letters, stuff like that."

"Who's she writing to?"

"Ted." That came out a bit too quick. Andy had told him behind enchanted doors, trusted him to keep her scandalous secret. He looked around, just in case someone had eaves-dropped, and hopped Cassy had missed the name.

"Who's Ted?" Of course she had heard it. She always listened to him and Sirius was very grateful for it, just not this time.

"Oh, well I wasn't supposed to say anything. It's a secret so forget about it, okay." He squirmed a bit. Like most nine years old he had a hard time keeping secrets.

"Come on Sirius! Say! You can trust me." She whined and stared at him with big eyes.

"I can't I said." He looked down at the ground, it had always been hard to look Dorcas in the eyes and not do as she wanted. She was about to start crying, he could see it, and Sirius hated crying girls. That meant he had done something really wrong and that was never good. Because that's way he didn't want Dorcas to be sad… right?

"Don't force me to hit you! Then you'll regret you didn't tell me from the start." She threatened. The big eyes had disappeared and had been replaced by her fist. She had seen it on TV, but when she did it she only looked comical.

"Yeah? You can always try. I'm much bigger than you."Sirius gave her a cocky smirk.

"Bigger yes, but maybe not stronger."

"Of course I am!"

"You can't know that! We have never had an arm wrestle or something like that."

"That because I don't fight girls."

"Great, that means I can hit you 'till you tell me without you fighting back." She smiled (what she thought was) her most evil smile. Sirius thought about it, he actually didn't know how strong she was. It wasn't that he was afraid of her or something, but, you could never know with her. Maybe she was serious when she threatened him, or maybe she would go and get her dad. And mr Meadowes was obviously stronger, and bigger, than him.

"Will you stop nagging if I tell you?"

"Come on and say then!" She pressed herself close to him so he could whisper in her ear.

"Ted is Andromeda's new secret boyfriend." He had kept it secret for weeks, and even if he shouldn't have said anything it was a relief. He could ask Andromeda for forgiveness later. Besides, he only told Dorcas and she wouldn't chatter about it. "But you can't tell anyone else, Andy will get sad then."

"I promise, on my wand."

"You don't have a wand yet."

"Whatever. By the way, why is it a secret?" She had a smile on her lips, happy because he trusted her. He was very loyal but every time he didn't want to tell her something it felt like he couldn't rely on her.

"She said Ted is a muggle-born, and you know how my family is with stuff like that."

"Yeah…"

They both sat silently then. Even if they talked about most things, they had avoided the topic of Sirius' family. He wasn't ready to discuss it and Dorcas didn't know if she wanted to know anymore.

When they had started to play together, more than three years ago, she had forced Sirius to answer. He had told her about so frightening things she had got nightmares about cut off elf heads. Her parents hadn't known they had been playing together, but when she woken up for the fourth time in a week she was obliged to tell them.

They were angry at first. How could a boy tell such horrible things to a little six years old? There among about a boggart kept as a pet. Nanette in particular was furious. She had told Dorcas to stay away from the Black family, and the kid still didn't listen. But Dorcas then told them she had asked him to tell her, and it wasn't his fault so they calmed down.

Lots of questions filled Cassy's head about the subject, but despite that did she remain silent. Instead did she lay on her side and looked at Sirius, very intensively. He knew when she did so had she something she wanted to talk or ask about. He rolled his eyes and sighed deeply, maybe she would understand she was annoying.

"What?"

"Have they kissed?" she whispered and blushed in the dark. Sure, Sirius was her best friend, but it felt really weird to talk about kisses with him.

"Why do you want to know that? You girls are just the same. Andy wanted to tell me but who can listen to stuff like that? It's so gross." Sirius rolled his eyes again.

"It's not gross! It's romantic." This was getting more and more embarrassing Dorcas thought and wished she never had started to talk about it. But had you started something…"Like in movies or in books. I would like my life to be like a fairytale."

"What, you want me to kiss you or something?" He wrinkled his nose to show HE at least didn't want to do it, even if it was too dark for her to see him anyway.

"No ugh, don't touch me with your lips!" she crawled away so she was at least a couple feet away, a safe distant.

"Come on Cassy! Just a little peck" Sirius said teasingly and laughed when she crawled even further away. Suddenly was it very fun with kisses.

"I'd rather kiss my dog. And he has bad breath." She pointed at Tripped. The dog turned his head away, as if he was ashamed of his odor, which made both kids laugh till they were out of breath.

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**A/N**

**First; a big thank you to my Betareader: _DarkGarnetRose_**

**I'm skipping some years, as you notice, sorry for that if you like to read them as little children. It will be an even bigger timeskip between this and next chapter, so you better get used to it. **

**Tell me what you think, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Come on Sirius! Let me go!" Dorcas tried to pull away her arm from him but he had a firm grip. He could be really stubborn, unluckily for her, and as one of the beaters in Gryffindors quidditch team he wouldn't let her go so easily.

"You promised last week, only an hour. We eat, mingle and then leave. You don't even have to talk with him. Just come with me and we're out before you'll know it." Sirius looked beseechingly at her.

"I don't get it, you hate those things more than me."

"This is different. More people than usual will come, famous people. He knows everyone, for Merlin's sake! Lots of contacts and possibilities."

"Why can't you ask someone else? You can probably charm some girl to go with you." That wouldn't be too hard. He had a horde of them circling around him like vultures, hoping he would notice them, Dorcas thought.

"Yeah sure, because I want to be associated with someone who's IQ is lower than a gnomes and about as interesting as Mr Binns' lessons." He snorted and Dorcas laughed, it was a good description of the horde of girls that followed him.

"And the other marauders? They will be there anyway, right?"

"James _thinks_ he's going with Lily Evans, as usual. Remus said he didn't feel so good and Peter is spending the holiyday at home. I wouldn't go with Peter anyway because, well he's Peter. You are really the only one who wouldn't humiliate me Cassy."

"But go alone then, and let me go back to my dorm."

"You can't abandon me Cassy. You promised! Please, please, please…" He threw himself around her legs and held on like his life depended on it. "… please, please…"

A hufflepuff in their year walked by and stared at them like if they had grown an extra head each. Dorcas smile embarrassed and tried to make Sirius lose his grip.

"That's enough now Sirius, come on." She hissed. "People stare!"

"… please, please, please…"

"Okay, you get as you want. Stop being such a child."

-o-o-o-o-

They stepped into Slughorns Christmas party half an hour later. Sirius in black dress robe with red details and Dorcas in matching red dress and a black cardigan.

The room was already crowded. Most of them where Slughorns favorite students, both old and new ones, but there were also other influential people who had become targets of his flattery.

Sirius and Dorcas did as they had planned to. They ate and talked with some interesting people, but just when they were about to go…

"Sirius my boy! Why didn't you come and greet me first thing you?" Slughorn, a very fat man, come up to them with his arms open and witha big smile. He had a large walrus moustache but he had started to lose his blonde hair.

"Professor…" Sirius looked beseechingly at Cassy for the second time that evening when she tried to run away from Sirius and the catastrophe she knew would come.

She loathed how the professor favored some students (there among Sirius, James Potter, Lily Evans and even Remus Lupin when he felt generous). He worshiped them like they were gods. Sure, the students he chose were truly brilliant and deserved to shine but he barely saw the other, like Dorcas. She always felt a bit low when she had talked with Slughorn.

"Oh, please say Horace. It's Christmas and we should have a pleasant time."

"Well, it was nice to see you sir, but we actually have to…" Sirius didn't like the fawning any more than Dorcas. As the troublemaker he was; he considered it was better to be unseen by the Hogwarts staff.

"I spoke with Minerva the other day" the walrus interrupted. "And I'm glad we came to talk about you because I had no idea you wanted to become an auror. Excellent career chose my boy, excellent!"

"Um, thanks."

"Hard to become of course, with long trials but it will pay off you'll see. If someone can make it it's you, I can bet my wandhand on it. Then I'll see you in my class next year too, how splendid! Aurors are highly ranked, only a few can be valued higher, but that is…"

"Dorcas want to work at the department of Mysteries" Sirius said in a desperate attempt to flee from Slughorn's focus. He laid an arm around Cassy incase the professor had forgotten who she was. Horace turned to her for the first time that evening and blinked a few times to see if she was real.

Dorcas on the other hand stared angrily at Sirius, who avoided her eyes.

"I see," Slughorn said slowly. "That is a, um, fascinating chose. Not so much information about it. How did you decid that was your life mission?" he asked testing.

"My dad was an Unspeakable." She answered shortly. All she wanted to do was take a last sip of her butterbeer and get out from the party, but apparently she had become interesting enough to be interrogated and wouldn't be going anywhere.

"'Was' you said?"

"He died last year, on the job." Can you please let me leave now? She added in her head.

"I am very sorry for your loss. Everything about those projects is so secret but I understand it can be dangerous. I knew a woman who was an unspeakable; she started here at Hogwarts only a couple of years after I started to work here. She was very talented whit arithmancy, if I remember correctly. Do you take arithmancy?"

"Yes, but the class is too advanced for me so I probably won't take it on NEWT-level."

"Sadly she did disappear for several decades." He babbled like he hadn't heard her unpleasant answer. "Can I ask which house you're in?"

"Ravenclaw, sir."

"Then you have to be clever. Very clever, indeed."

Sirius and Dorcas rolled their eyes, they both knew what the conversation would lead to. As a collector did Slughorn wanted contacts all over the Wizarding world. But it was hard to get a peek into the department of Mysteries, and apparently he hadn't found someone since the women had disappeared.

"Dorcas, I had thought to host a dinner around the new year. It would be ravishing to have a girl with such a focus and purposeful mind like you there. Would you like to come?" he asked.

"Uhm, new year you said? I don't know if I can…" Dorcas started. She glanced over to Sirius with the hope he could save her. It was, after all, he who had tricked her in to the Slugtrap to begin with. To her disappointment he just shrugged and tried to not laugh at her annoyance.

The professor didn't miss the glance and said easily, "Sirius, you are of course also welcome. I wouldn't want to come between a young couple, less separate you, even for an evening."

"This isn't, well, we…"

"We actually aren't… " both Sirius and Dorcas started but were once again cut off.

"You're a charming pair, I have to say. I'm really looking forward to hearing how you got together." He looked thrilled and then said "No I think I will leave you two alone now. Sirius, keep an eye on your lady so no-one steal her." He winked before he walked towards Lily on the other side of the room, leaving Dorcas (speechless) and Sirius (with his jaw at his knees) behind.

"You'll pay for this" Dorcas hissed before she stomped out. Sirius followed, laughing, after.

"Self-defense Cassy, it was self-defense!"

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**A/N**

**A big thank you to my Betareader: _DarkGarnetRose_**

**Just so everything is clear; Sirius and the others are in there fifth year in this chapter.**

**Tell me what you think, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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